Our Third Annual Snowbird Adventure; The First Twelve Days

Day One:  November 23, 2011 Panora, Ia to Lexington, Ne



Despite having months to prepare for our Third Annual Snowbird Adventure, there always seems to be so many last minute details to attend to.  So it was about 4:30 PM before we pulled out of Panora and headed west.  Our plan was to drive as far as we felt like it, and drive the rest of the way to Milliken, Co Thanksgiving Day to my oldest sisters house for dinner with the Colorado contingent on my side of the family.

We drove to York, NE where we stopped to get something to eat at a place called "The Kitchen".  Pretty good food.  Then the decision needed to be made to stay here for the night, or continue on for a while.  Since it wasnt that late, we decided  to drive on, but by the time we got to Lexington, Ne, it was time to stop for the night, so after filling up with gas at Cenex, we noticed they had a large parking lot out behind, and it proved to be a very good place to spend our first night on the road.

Day  Two: November 24, 2011 Thanksgiving Day

After a good nights sleep, we got on the road in time to put us at my sister's house by 11:30 AM, which would give us plenty of time to visit with family before Thanksgiving Dinner.

Here I am carving the turkey, with the assistance of two of my brothers.

After too much food and lots of conversation, some of us went out to our motorhome to show it to some of the relatives who had not seen it.  My sister Terri, and her husband Walt have a pull type camper, and are enthusiastic RVers, enjoyed talking RVing and traveling.  They hope to be able to join us Quartzsite this winter.  We are looking forward to that!

After a long day of driving, eating, and visiting, it was time for bed.  We pulled our motorhome around the block to a level spot on an adjacent street to make our night camp.( a term I borrowed from Tioga George)

Day 3: November 25, 2011



Today was a short driving day.  After having coffee with my sister, and adding water to our motothome from an outside spigot ather house, and then de-winterizing.

 We made the short drive to Johnsons Corner  to fill up with gas, and plan our day.  We unloaded the car, left the motorhome in the RV parking area at Johnsons Corner, and drove to my brother's place in Loveland to watch Iowa get beat up on by Nebraska.  The game wasnt so good, but the conversation was excellent.  Been quite a while since I have sat down and watched foot ball with any of my brothers.  At half time we went to a local restaurant to get a bite to eat and watch the second half of the game on their big projection tv.  It didnt help the Hawkeyes at all.

Then it was back to the motorhome where the decision was made to stay at the nearby RV Retreat  for the night.  The lady at the check in was less than friendly and failed to give us the password for the park's free wi-fi, but we managed to live without it, as we tethered our Android phones to our computers to access the 'net.

It was a windy and stormy night, but no snow.  We didnt sleep all that well, but the signs were there; time to head south in the morning!

Day 4: November 26, 2011

This was to be a long driving day in an attempt to get to some warm weather before Sunday night, so we could be somewhere where Ann would be set up to work on Monday morning. The weather was great for traveling; about a 40 mph tail wind!  That doesnt happen often in the RVing world!



We finally decided to stop in Vaughn, NM for the night, and were able to find an RV park with full hook ups for the Passport America rate if $16.00.  The place seemed abandoned, but they had a self pay drop-box.

 

The place only had a few spots, but served the purpose for a quiet place to spend a few hours sleeping.

Days 5 -10: November 27, 2011-December 2, 2011

The original plan today was to drive to The Ranch SKP Park near Lakewood, NM, but after looking at the weather forecast for the area, we decided to drive on south to Pecos, TX, and stay at TraPark in Pecos, TX.



On the way, we passed through Roswell, NM, and stopped for some Dairy Queen.  It is nice to be able to practice getting myself into, and out of tight spots with the RV.

 We, meaning Ann, didnt take too many pics today but here are a few from TraPark in Pecos, TX.

Since the place was pretty full, we got to park by one of the entrance/exits.

The place is not bad, but one thing we noticed is that many of the people staying here are not retired RVers, but are working people who are living in RVs.  The oil field business is going pretty strong in the area, and I assume that is where most of the workers who stay here, are working.

We had to rely on our Directv for our tv watching, as we were not able to pic up any over the air channels, but we survived.

The week went by pretty quickly; Ann mostly worked, but we did get outside most days to take  walk around the park. I have an app for my phone that measures how far go, and it showed that our route was .6 miles.

One of the evenings, there was a tree lighting ceremony in the nearby park.  It had the usual singing, but that was followed by a huge and lengthy fire works display.  It was awesome, and we were so close that some the fireworks dropped down close to our RV.  Nothing says Merry Christmas like a fireworks display!

We didnt interact much with the town, other than eating at a Chinese buffet place, followed by a shopping trip to the local Wal*Mart, and another night we ate at the restaurant in a nearby motel.

 Day 11:  Traveling to Del Rio, TX



 
On Saturday morning we were headed to American Campground  in Del Rio, TX, a place we stayed in for most of the month of December last year, but planned on fill up at the local Flying J, and eating breakfast at the Denny's attached to the Flying J, but it wasnt to be.  Neither of the two RV pumps I pulled up to would accept credit cards, and after waiting in line inside for about 10 minutes, all the clerk would say is that if I wanted to get gas there, I would have to prepay.  That was not acceptable to me, so we left and drove to Stockton, TX to fill up and eat.

One more thing about Pecos, TX.  They have some weird roads in Texas, but the one by the Flying J takes the cake.  They have the usual exit where Interstate 20 meets Highway 285, but just to the west of the 285 exit, their is an additional exit that ends up on a two-way frontage road.  The people traveling on the frontage road are supposed to yield to the cars exiting the freeway!  I cant imagine a better set up for an accident!  I never even looked for the yield signs, and just happened to notice them when we were leaving town!

Our trip to Stockton was uneventful where we filled up with gas at a Stripes station, and then a little ways farther, we had breakfast at an IHOP that had a nice place to park for RVs, and trucks.

We then continued on to Del Rio, a route that we traveled last year when we left Del Rio, and traveled to Tucson.  I got a couple of pics on the way.

Coming into Sanderson, TX.

Down town Sanderson, TX.

A small restaurant that we ate at when we went through Sanderson last year.  Unfortunately, the restaurant is now closed.  

We arrived at American Camprgound neat Del Rio, TX about 3:30PM, got checked in and set up while we enjoyed the 77 degree weather.  This what we had been looking for since we left home, but it will be short lived, as the cold weather coming from the North West will catch up with us tomorrow.  Highs in the 50s, not the 70s, but better than the weather in Iowa.

After resting for a bit, we headed into town to do some grocery shopping at the HEB, then to Chili's for some dinner, then stopping at Lorena's Cantina for some karaoke.

It was a great evening, lots of excellent singers, and they appreciated Ann's singing ability, however, I dont think anyone remembered  us being there last year. After staying a little later than we normally do, we headed home for some well deserved sleep.

Day 12: December, 2011

Today is just a lazy day.  It is overcast and a general dreary day. We didnt accomplish much.  Ann did laundry, and I tested our Virgin Mobile usb modem that Ann will use while working while we are in this area, as there is no Verizon data service in this part of Texas.  The park has good wi-fi so, connecting to the 'net wont be a problem for our personal computers.  I spent most of the day contemplating the blog, and finally about 7:00PM I started writing.  It is now about midnight, and I am calling it a day.  I hope those that read the blog get something out of it.

Comments are always appreciated!

Paul